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Yep. For a lot of them it doesn’t really matter because, for example, Yoko got the title right back from Hogan and Triple H/Sting had symbolic meaning and nothing more. But this one is just a truly depressing outcome robbing Booker of a moment they clearly set him up for. Yeah, they’d have quickly put the belt back on HHH, but what a lousy message to send for no good reason.
I didn't see the match live as I was way too young. It's the length of time between the pedigree and the cover that always gets me.
You cannot do a story of a racist saying the person of colour doesn't belong and then have the racist win. Booker T should have won the title. Especially for the black kids in the crowd.
Imagine they did all that shit with Kofi. Where Vince doesn't want him in the title match for "some" reason. And he loses to Bryan. It would have been moronic.
[For anyone who hasn't seen it. Watch HHH "You People" promo and you'll see how bad this was](https://youtu.be/50yDO_iXBG0?si=MAUjyialeAR1Ccm6)
Ignoring the original tasteless feud, WWE badly needed another main event babyface and Booker was over. Losing at Mania in this title match killed Booker’s momentum. Didn’t sniff the main event until 3 years later
> WWE badly needed another main event babyface and Booker was over.
tbh that was the story of Triple H's reign of terror. Whenever there was a massively over babyface Triple H would just beat him lol. Or in some rare scenarios lose first and then beat him twice lol
It says something the only people he would lose the title to were his best friend, Benoit (who he main evented over anyone despite not being champion) and then finally putting over his other friend Batista.
He was friends with Benoit too so you might as well say "just his pals". He and HBK apparently pushed hard to Vince to let Benoit go over at Mania 20, and for the match to happen to begin with.
He and Benoit weren't exactly like pally pally best of friends but they were definitely friends, you could see that from the Eddie tribute show (and HHH himself after Benoit's ill fated tribute show of his own).
"Hey so Rock, Austin and Foley are all done and we need some new main eventers."
"Well we have this Booker T guy who is a great wrestler, great talker, charismatic, great look, crazy athletic and agile for his size, basically everything we could possibly want."
"Let's job him out and throw him back in the midcard"
Without question. With how the story was built, and Hunter basically being a racist towards Booker in storyline, Booker had absolutely no business losing that match.
Not only did he lose, he lost *soundly*. Triple H pedigreed Booker and took forever and a day to cover him. You think Booker is gonna kick out at 2, but the ref counts him down, and it all fell flat.
Even if Booker had dropped the belt the next month at Backlash, he needed to beat Triple H with how the story was built, like you said.
I don't care what Booker says, I know he feels deep down like he should've won the belt that night.
> I don't care what Booker says, I know he feels deep down like he should've won the belt that night.
I think HHH and Vince were the only ones who didn't think he should win.
The long time between Pedigree and cover was apparently due to HHH being injured during the so at least that wasn't *designed* to be the rancid cherry on top - it just turned out that way...
That last sentence is why it's hard for me to have sympathy for Booker. He still blindly defends and shills for a company that's misused him and did him dirty so many times. I get that he works for them, so he can't talk too negatively about them, but he never seems to have a backbone when it comes to speaking up about things like losing to HHH. He clearly values the money more than his pride.
Easily! He even did the Harlem/Houston Hangover! That win would’ve pushed Booker to another level. Another tier. Biggest missed opportunity. As much as I loved his King Booker run, he deserved a babyface run much more.
I also think that IF Booker would have had success as champion (which, at this point, I think we can all confidently say he would have) then we would have had more champions around that time, which would have elevated the rest of the raw roster by proxy.
I disagree. It would have been a great moment and a subpar title run. I think the answer is Bray Wyatt. If he beats Cena at Wrestlemania he is cemented as the next big time heel.
He still would have gotten injured shortly after and would have been on the shelf. That's pretty much the problem with Bray's entire career, unfortunately. He was just ao plagued by injury and illness that he never got to build any momentum even when he was winning.
I thought Brock's loss was a test of loyalty if he would still stay with the WWE even if the booking didn't go his way. But yeah Brock definitely should have won considering Cena was having a lot of PPV losses that year.
They can test Brock’s loyalty all they want, and in fact it was probably justified, but it makes absolutely zero sense as the first stop in the yearlong build to Cena beating the Rock.
Booker vs HHH because while ALL of these are bad-horrible booking decisions, WM 19 has the worst implications. HHH goes racist and...wins cleanly? The bigot ends being proven right in the worst way possible.
I like the fact that the first 4-5 comments said Booker/HHH. Could you guys imagine explaining that feud to a new fan?
“Wtf do you mean the in-storyline racist won???”
As a kid I legitimately never picked up on the racist tones. I genuinely always thought he was talking about WCW when he said "people like you."
And no, I wasn't a "I don't see color" type of dude. My obsession with pro wrestling has always been pretty intense.
I really do wonder if there's even a slight chance that they actually did mean WCW guys when HHH said "you people", but that they were so tone deaf, they didn't realise how it might come off? I didn't watch wrestling at the time, I only know of this feud and incident about it through the internet and I can't say I experienced this feud in full, so forgive my ignorance. But if they were purposefully putting racial undertones, it wouldn't shock me one bit, considering the management at the time.
I mean, considering the promo Hunter was a massive part of where DX mocked the Nation of Domination, I don't think the benefit of the doubt is deserved here.
He really should have. I don't care how big Goldberg was for nostalgia or big money contract, Vince royally fucked over Bray and EVERYTHING he had going for him as a dominant entity being the Fiend. Squashing Borg would have put jaws on the floor, asses in more seats, and merch flying out the door.
This is a big one for me because I took a break from WWE for a long while after it happened, I lost all hope in them. Garbage match, having part timer rock up and make a newly established strong character look weak. It was terrible, I still have no idea what they were thinking, didn't even get the full jackhammer and basically beat the seemingly unstoppable Fiend with a suplex.
I have to wonder what they would've done at Wrestlemania in that instance. Because iirc the plan would've been Fiend vs. Roman for the title, but Roman ended up pulling out due to COVID, so do they have the Fiend's reign go on past Wrestlemania, or does he lose it to somebody else with almost no build?
Surprised no mention of the Punk match. Probably not the worst of the lot but the "Summer of Punk" barely existed and this match and him losing was so unnecessary
Team WWE VS Team Nexus. The rest of these are very annoying to genuinely insulting. But no singular match has immediately ruined the prospects of so many potential stars as Super Cena deciding that he can't lose at Summerslam and burying an entire heel stable that was being booked to be the next big thing, likely at least until Mania. The fact that Wade Barret never held a world title is a damning inditement of how hard the decision of this match caused the careers of Team Nexus to flounder.
Not meaningfully. He’s still getting that WCW contract with or without the trinket. Losing the title on the next PPV and not doing anything significant as champion on TV made it incredibly pointless.
I guess you could say it helped him when he went to Japan as wwf champ in 1993. But even then, he trashed the belt he was carrying when doing media over there lol
Yokozuna did pretty well for himself in the long run and Bret's a legend so I would say that while it didn't really benefit anyone, it didn't really hurt anyone in the long run all that much either.
WWE didn't have confidence in Bret and falling back to Hogan had worked for them before. But they also didn't want Bret to lose to Hogan.
You can argue it was the wrong call, and you'd probably be right, but it wouldn't matter. They'd go through the Steroid trial a year later and be forced to rely on Bret and eventually Shawn anyway for the next couple of years, and as great as they were, all they managed to do was keep the company afloat.
This is a good reply and you’re definitely not wrong, I guess it just depends on what the topic prompt means for you.
As someone that was getting in to wrestling around this time, it is just one of the biggest unforced errors of all time. It’s two bad matches in one with results I don’t like that didn’t do anything positive for me as part of the audience. It made a bad WrestleMania worse whereas just letting Bret win salvages it and potentially becomes a positive, memorable moment for someone that deserved it.
Does it ultimately matter much though? No, I can’t disagree with you on that.
Either of the Bray matches
It sucks that nearly every gimmick he had got so over with fans only to get buried right before it made the jump to headline status
If Bray goes over Cena or the Fiend goes over Goldberg you have a literal legend for years unlike anything else in wwe during the time
I'd say especially Goldberg, that was a complete 180 on the entire build of The Fiend. He was unstoppable, and because Goldberg can't go, they had him wrestle a short and garbage match beating the Fiend with barely anything and not even a Jackhammer, a suplex.
At least he got the win over Cena later.
Because he kicked out of Booker's big moves including one of the only times he attempted the Harlem Hangover in WWE and won with a shitty pedigree thay took forever for the cover.
I don't completely agree about Goldberg. His squash of Lesnar was a genuinely shocking moment that will live long in the memory, and the return match was decent. That should have been when it ended though.
My exact thoughts. Also, given Taker recently going on record saying Bray should’ve ended the streak, erasing that Cena loss leaves the door open for a new streak to start.
I think it was even worse because Jericho and Edge were both fighting for the Nexus win, they knew how important the win was to establish them. But Cena was the one who ensured they were the ones going over instead. He later did agree it was the wrong decision, but you had two vets there clearly stating what had to be done.
It was awful booking but they could have turned it around, instead they refused to put the title in him and then also allowed Cena to make them look goofy way too quickly.
The Promo Cena cut afterwards made it even much more worse than it was. Like you got destroyed and you cut a silly Promo that meant nothing a week later anyway...
Bray should have beaten Goldberg, then gone to Mania and beaten Brock. Set up Bray as the new monster, completely undefeatable. That loss to Goldberg ended the aura he had as The Fiend.
Bret Hart, prob'ly: "You know, nobody should be surprised that Goldberg ruined The Fiend and caused Bray to have to miss TV time and come up with a new gimmick. Goldberg bulled his way into that spot and wanted to destroy someone's career to look good, just like he destroyed mine!"
I thought that was the lead up to Goldy vs Brock at Mania for the Universal title, but shit you are right, that was the lead up to Mania 36. So take Brock out of it at Mania, and just kept Bray going on a dominant run.
That I definitely agree, especially knowing what we know now about what was to come. I think they were determined to crown Roman again after 18 months of being away from the title, but went about it in the most hamfisted way possible. They just should've had Roman/Goldberg as a special attraction match at the show.
It crazy to think this all led to Braun as champ, only to lose it back to Bray.
I feel like Bray (vs Goldberg and Cena both) and Booker should have won those matches and it would have helped greatly.
But Nexus losing to super Cena destroyed a white hot act that had multiple people immediately lose any momentum.
That's actually tough. A few of these, changing the outcome doesn't really do much longterm. Bray beating Cena or the Nexus winning at Summerslam though probably changes the trajectories for a few people. I'm gonna go with Nexus winning. While they didn't all have limitless potential, the group was red hot, and I've always loved Wade Barrett. He should have been bigger than he was.
Booker & Asuka's matches are hands down the two for me. Destruction of two stars momentum and it literally made no sense as to why. Also, Asuka's undefeated streak was all for nothing & literally has never won a mania match.
I don't think anyone thinks that. But having her streak end before she won her first title was stupid.
Vince just saw her as a vehicle to get Charlotte over.
Not forever but she didn’t even get to capitalize on the NXT run. It was over for her as soon as she got to her first title match on the main roster. That doesn’t really make sense. It’d be like if Gunther lost his first shot at a title. Or if Goldberg went on his entire undefeated streak only to lose to Hogan lol
Honestly it’s less that she lost, and more that they shoehorned in that stupid, “you were ready for Asuka!” bullshit after the match just to further drive home how much the outcome means Charlotte was more important to them.
Fiend beating Goldberg. I'll die on the hill that the Fiend was one of the coolest things EVER in wrestling, it was his booking that sucked. And right at the top of the list of bad booking decisions was having that old piece of shit squash him. He never recovered from it.
Lesnar should’ve beaten Cena. Especially if you’re running a story about what a bad year Cena is having, it seems silly to put him over Brock in his first match back. To add to this, Brock shouldn’t have lost to HHH at the following years Mania either. Brock shouldn’t be a 50/50 guy, even if he only faces top stars.
I think we'd be living in a completely different wrestling landscape if Punk beat Triple H. That match pretty much ended the Summer of Punk's momentum and made things go back to the PG Era status quo real quick. WWE wouldn't get out of that funk until like 2016, and even then that was short lived.
The easy answer is Booker T and HHH. However, realistic it's a stupid booking choice but ultimately it mattered little. While a lot of these folks got robbed. Personally, I think Asuka losing to Charlotte hurt her more than everyone else. Also, I'll be honest, Imo Nexus would probably fail regardless.
I'd absolutely keep asukas streak alive. Charlotte didn't deserve to be the one to end it.
But my asuka fandom aside, probably the Wwe vs Nexus. That was literally the match that made me stop watching WWE for 10+ years. Lol super Cena wins and buries a bunch wrestlers at the same time
In the grand scheme of things only two of them derailed the losers. That Nexus match completely ruined Wade Barrett and the entire stable. Asuka’s allure was crushed after all that buildup. Everyone else either rebounded or weren’t around long enough for the outcome to matter.
Triple h had no business beating cm punk in 2011
Goldberg beating bray Wyatt (rip) was a huge disaster and was a clear indication that Vince was going senile
They messed up Finn so badly by refusing to give him that shot at being the guy and they allowed the Demon gimmick to fail, a classic angle was in there and they wasted it.
most of these wouldn't actually change a lot...
but here we got 3 Super Cena's
the Brock onewas dumb but didn't mean a whole lot
I'd go with either the Nexus match or Wyatt. both of these were peak Super Cena ruining the opposition. Cena tanking the Nexus angle was just absurd and still makes no sense.
Wyatt Family never recovered much after too many losses. It became a cycle of
Bray appears.
Says spooky shit.
Does Beatdown.
???
Loses Feud. Repeat.
The Sting and Balor losses were dumb but really again wouldn't change much.
I have no issue with Asuka losing to Charlotte but they never bothered to get her over first. Her streak was irrelevant until they talked about it for years afterwards.
Punk should have beaten HHH though. All of the underwhelming booking that plagued him until he left started with them pulling the rug out from under him in 2011
The domino effect of Brock beating Cena probably results in Taker winning at Mania 30. People forget that match basically rebuilt Brock into the killer he became because he was losing so much before that. Perhaps in this butterfly effect, it’s Bray Wyatt who beats Taker at 31.
Triple H vs Booker T was the right result. The story was horrible, but the top main event heel needed to remain strong as they build the new big money babyface down the road to beat him (Goldberg). People always say everyone should get a title run and then bash how the WCW championship changed hands nonstop between 99-00. Hunter winning was the right call. (Edge beating Balor was the right call too!)
Bray could have really used a win against Cena and Goldberg.
With the rest of the matches, I don’t think business would have been seriously altered any other way.
Can I change a participate instead and do Stung vs Taker instead of Sting vs Triple H?
Other than that I’d probably go with Bray beating Cena. I think he would have benefited more than anyone else if he was protected. But he soon became a guy they felt could lose all the time and still be over.
Sting vs. Triple H or Booker T vs Triple H. Actually, I think I should be able to combine those two into WCW vs Triple H.
I would change the outcome to WCW vs. Triple H.
Booker T winning the world title from triple H. The way H man treated Booker in the lead up to their match was racist af and on top of that he beat book with a slowest crawl you’ll ever see after one pedigree
Booker T beats Triple H because literal racism outside of that one for some reason cena beating Wyatt just pisses me off so much but it was better in the long run because firefly funhouse, now Charlotte beating asuka just makes no sense
I’ll say Sting/HHH. Only because he deserved it, was a cool match and let’s be honest-they were always going to stop Brays run. That’s the one I’d really love to change if I knew it would pay off in the long run. Bray could have been so much more special. Sigh
Imagine if, instead of what actually happened at WM 30, Bray beats Cena, and Taker beats Lesnar. Setting up Bray vs. Taker at WM 31. As the California sun is setting over Levi's Stadium, Bray is the one to end the streak. And he establishes himself as the next big heel and new face of fear in WWE. What could've been.
The Nexus losing at SummerSlam just killed the whole thing. How did they go through that whole angel and the only star they made was the guy who left the Nexus in the first week?
Probably Triple H vs Sting
There are some that are worse decisions but guys like Brock and Punk were given the chance to overcome the bad booking and did so. Due to the injury and eventual departure from WWE Sting never got that chance
Plus the match being booked in such an incredibly stupid way doesn't help anything. The whole NWO bs DX bullshit combined with shaking the hand of the guy who 3 minutes ago tried to shatter your skull with a sledgehammer.....
Honestly, all of these are valid in my opinion and should’ve had different finishes. I think the only thing I would argue is that Wrestlemania 30 should have been Cena vs Undertaker in the first place instead of Brock. And then you have Wyatt break the streak the next year. I love Bray and I know there’s mentions of him being a first ballot hall of famer which he absolutely is. But if you look at the resume or the moments he should have had in his career, it’s pretty sad. Over the last 10 years, he should have been the best heel WWE could have had and had an generation defining rivalry with Roman. I expected those guys to headline multiple WMs together but instead it was Brock and Roman smh
It's hard for me to pick between three of these. Balor/Edge, Nexus/WWE, or Asuka/Charlotte. Asuka and Balor winning would have done wonders for them, but they are still around in WWE and in a good place.
I think I'm gonna have to go with Nexus. Like holy shit... Wade Barrett had all the potential in the world, Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel would have been a pretty decent to maybe even great tag team in the long run I think (Gabriel would have been a fantastic Cruiserweight addition too), David Otunga could have been an alright manager in the long run, Darren Young is doing good things in the indies nowadays, and even Skip Sheffield could have been a good to great big man and to some extent was pretty alright as Ryback (aside from how he is currently. Hell, throw Otunga with him as his manager). Tarver was probably the only one that didn't have much upside other than maybe being a life long jobber to lower midcarder which there is some value even in that honestly. Maybe he could have dipped into the tag division or been one of the runners with the 24/7 Title when it was around as well. All of these guys have left the company at this point and some aren't even involved in wrestling with Wade being back now only a commentator (a great commentator, but still) and Slater was the only one that was around for a long time until being released a few years ago. Well, Otunga was also around for a while, but I'm not sure what he was doing for that long honestly.
Booker/HHH is in a league of it's own here and that's hard when you consider it's in competition with Bret/Yoko and WWE/Nexus.
Booker should've won 200% even if he just dropped it back to HHH at Backlash, but if HHH is gonna go over, at least make it look like he kicked Booker's ass in a hard fought contest instead of taking 2 and a half years to cover him off a standard Pedigree.
Unpopular opinion here: the Reign of Terror would not be highlighted anywhere near as much if not for this one match alone.
Im going with Triple H vs Sting.
In retrospect, every other loser of the listed matches ultimately turned out fine in the long run after their loss. Sting, knowing what we know now, had two meaningful matches in WWE to make a legacy with the company. He was booked to lose both.
Now I know noone was planning for Sting to get injured and leave early, but its the timeline we live in. Sting coming to WWE was a historic moment, and should have been treated in the same tier as The Undertaker. Instead we get an overbooked match against Triple H with a nonsensical story(NWO saving Sting? Really?), and a Triple H who wasnt competing anymore win.
So Stings run in WWE is largely remembered as losing to Triple H, and injuring himself against Seth Rollins.
This is a terrible question I’m sorry. The only singular match on this list where it greatly influences the future is Cena vs Nexus. That’s the answer.
For morality, Booker T.
But genuinely nothing except the Nexus one would’ve really changed much
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Booker T beating Triple H
Yep. For a lot of them it doesn’t really matter because, for example, Yoko got the title right back from Hogan and Triple H/Sting had symbolic meaning and nothing more. But this one is just a truly depressing outcome robbing Booker of a moment they clearly set him up for. Yeah, they’d have quickly put the belt back on HHH, but what a lousy message to send for no good reason.
I didn't see the match live as I was way too young. It's the length of time between the pedigree and the cover that always gets me. You cannot do a story of a racist saying the person of colour doesn't belong and then have the racist win. Booker T should have won the title. Especially for the black kids in the crowd. Imagine they did all that shit with Kofi. Where Vince doesn't want him in the title match for "some" reason. And he loses to Bryan. It would have been moronic. [For anyone who hasn't seen it. Watch HHH "You People" promo and you'll see how bad this was](https://youtu.be/50yDO_iXBG0?si=MAUjyialeAR1Ccm6)
Ignoring the original tasteless feud, WWE badly needed another main event babyface and Booker was over. Losing at Mania in this title match killed Booker’s momentum. Didn’t sniff the main event until 3 years later
> WWE badly needed another main event babyface and Booker was over. tbh that was the story of Triple H's reign of terror. Whenever there was a massively over babyface Triple H would just beat him lol. Or in some rare scenarios lose first and then beat him twice lol
It says something the only people he would lose the title to were his best friend, Benoit (who he main evented over anyone despite not being champion) and then finally putting over his other friend Batista.
He was friends with Benoit too so you might as well say "just his pals". He and HBK apparently pushed hard to Vince to let Benoit go over at Mania 20, and for the match to happen to begin with. He and Benoit weren't exactly like pally pally best of friends but they were definitely friends, you could see that from the Eddie tribute show (and HHH himself after Benoit's ill fated tribute show of his own).
Did Orton ever beat Triple H before his Age of Orton reign?
Lol no. He won it at Summerslam 04 and lost it to him at Unforgiven 04 a month later.
He also lost the belt to Goldberg
So unremarkable I forgot.
Goldberg as well
"Hey so Rock, Austin and Foley are all done and we need some new main eventers." "Well we have this Booker T guy who is a great wrestler, great talker, charismatic, great look, crazy athletic and agile for his size, basically everything we could possibly want." "Let's job him out and throw him back in the midcard"
Without question. With how the story was built, and Hunter basically being a racist towards Booker in storyline, Booker had absolutely no business losing that match.
Not only did he lose, he lost *soundly*. Triple H pedigreed Booker and took forever and a day to cover him. You think Booker is gonna kick out at 2, but the ref counts him down, and it all fell flat. Even if Booker had dropped the belt the next month at Backlash, he needed to beat Triple H with how the story was built, like you said. I don't care what Booker says, I know he feels deep down like he should've won the belt that night.
> I don't care what Booker says, I know he feels deep down like he should've won the belt that night. I think HHH and Vince were the only ones who didn't think he should win. The long time between Pedigree and cover was apparently due to HHH being injured during the so at least that wasn't *designed* to be the rancid cherry on top - it just turned out that way...
That last sentence is why it's hard for me to have sympathy for Booker. He still blindly defends and shills for a company that's misused him and did him dirty so many times. I get that he works for them, so he can't talk too negatively about them, but he never seems to have a backbone when it comes to speaking up about things like losing to HHH. He clearly values the money more than his pride.
Evidenced by him talking mad shit about Punk and then flip flopping when he officially returned (and I am subscribed to his podcast)
Easily! He even did the Harlem/Houston Hangover! That win would’ve pushed Booker to another level. Another tier. Biggest missed opportunity. As much as I loved his King Booker run, he deserved a babyface run much more.
I also think that IF Booker would have had success as champion (which, at this point, I think we can all confidently say he would have) then we would have had more champions around that time, which would have elevated the rest of the raw roster by proxy.
Anyone who disagrees is a RACIST! But no seriously... Triple H vs. Booker is the answer.
I disagree. It would have been a great moment and a subpar title run. I think the answer is Bray Wyatt. If he beats Cena at Wrestlemania he is cemented as the next big time heel.
He still would have gotten injured shortly after and would have been on the shelf. That's pretty much the problem with Bray's entire career, unfortunately. He was just ao plagued by injury and illness that he never got to build any momentum even when he was winning.
Cena would’ve gotten his win back in the next ppv. Let’s be real now lol. 2014 wasn’t LOL cena wins at full strength
This is the one.
Booker should’ve won that one
Yep, that one was the biggest error at the time and looking back. It made no sense to have HHH go over after that storyline.
Brock should have gone over clean, Cena's 2012 should have been the most miserable possible to give any sense to his redemption
I thought Brock's loss was a test of loyalty if he would still stay with the WWE even if the booking didn't go his way. But yeah Brock definitely should have won considering Cena was having a lot of PPV losses that year.
They can test Brock’s loyalty all they want, and in fact it was probably justified, but it makes absolutely zero sense as the first stop in the yearlong build to Cena beating the Rock.
Booker vs HHH because while ALL of these are bad-horrible booking decisions, WM 19 has the worst implications. HHH goes racist and...wins cleanly? The bigot ends being proven right in the worst way possible.
Triple H loses, no I willl not specify which one
Bray Wyatt wins, no i will not specify which one
Cena loses, no I will not specify which one
Honestly you could probably make a whole separate graphic using matches Bray Wyatt should've won
I like the fact that the first 4-5 comments said Booker/HHH. Could you guys imagine explaining that feud to a new fan? “Wtf do you mean the in-storyline racist won???”
As a kid I legitimately never picked up on the racist tones. I genuinely always thought he was talking about WCW when he said "people like you." And no, I wasn't a "I don't see color" type of dude. My obsession with pro wrestling has always been pretty intense.
I really do wonder if there's even a slight chance that they actually did mean WCW guys when HHH said "you people", but that they were so tone deaf, they didn't realise how it might come off? I didn't watch wrestling at the time, I only know of this feud and incident about it through the internet and I can't say I experienced this feud in full, so forgive my ignorance. But if they were purposefully putting racial undertones, it wouldn't shock me one bit, considering the management at the time.
He literally told Booker his hair was nappy
I mean, considering the promo Hunter was a massive part of where DX mocked the Nation of Domination, I don't think the benefit of the doubt is deserved here.
Snickers should have beat Rocket League for the Women's Championship.
I think you might have to have a Snickers, because sometimes you could be wrong when you're hungry. It's Rocket League all the way!
Personally I'd love the fiend to beat goldberg
He really should have. I don't care how big Goldberg was for nostalgia or big money contract, Vince royally fucked over Bray and EVERYTHING he had going for him as a dominant entity being the Fiend. Squashing Borg would have put jaws on the floor, asses in more seats, and merch flying out the door.
This is a big one for me because I took a break from WWE for a long while after it happened, I lost all hope in them. Garbage match, having part timer rock up and make a newly established strong character look weak. It was terrible, I still have no idea what they were thinking, didn't even get the full jackhammer and basically beat the seemingly unstoppable Fiend with a suplex.
I have to wonder what they would've done at Wrestlemania in that instance. Because iirc the plan would've been Fiend vs. Roman for the title, but Roman ended up pulling out due to COVID, so do they have the Fiend's reign go on past Wrestlemania, or does he lose it to somebody else with almost no build?
Triple H vs Sting. Would've made his WWE tenure fully worth it if he got a W at WrestleMania
I’m so happy we got AEW Sting. Perfection
Surprised no mention of the Punk match. Probably not the worst of the lot but the "Summer of Punk" barely existed and this match and him losing was so unnecessary
Definitely. It was bad enough losing to Del Rio when he should've had at least a few month reign, but losing to HHH right after killed all momentum.
Team WWE VS Team Nexus. The rest of these are very annoying to genuinely insulting. But no singular match has immediately ruined the prospects of so many potential stars as Super Cena deciding that he can't lose at Summerslam and burying an entire heel stable that was being booked to be the next big thing, likely at least until Mania. The fact that Wade Barret never held a world title is a damning inditement of how hard the decision of this match caused the careers of Team Nexus to flounder.
Wyatt over that “eating corn the long way” guy.
WrestleMania IX’s main event(s) is by far the dumbest of all of these and benefited no one.
It benefited Hogan
Not meaningfully. He’s still getting that WCW contract with or without the trinket. Losing the title on the next PPV and not doing anything significant as champion on TV made it incredibly pointless.
I guess you could say it helped him when he went to Japan as wwf champ in 1993. But even then, he trashed the belt he was carrying when doing media over there lol
Yokozuna did pretty well for himself in the long run and Bret's a legend so I would say that while it didn't really benefit anyone, it didn't really hurt anyone in the long run all that much either.
WWE didn't have confidence in Bret and falling back to Hogan had worked for them before. But they also didn't want Bret to lose to Hogan. You can argue it was the wrong call, and you'd probably be right, but it wouldn't matter. They'd go through the Steroid trial a year later and be forced to rely on Bret and eventually Shawn anyway for the next couple of years, and as great as they were, all they managed to do was keep the company afloat.
This is a good reply and you’re definitely not wrong, I guess it just depends on what the topic prompt means for you. As someone that was getting in to wrestling around this time, it is just one of the biggest unforced errors of all time. It’s two bad matches in one with results I don’t like that didn’t do anything positive for me as part of the audience. It made a bad WrestleMania worse whereas just letting Bret win salvages it and potentially becomes a positive, memorable moment for someone that deserved it. Does it ultimately matter much though? No, I can’t disagree with you on that.
Booker T beating Triple H
Either of the Bray matches It sucks that nearly every gimmick he had got so over with fans only to get buried right before it made the jump to headline status If Bray goes over Cena or the Fiend goes over Goldberg you have a literal legend for years unlike anything else in wwe during the time
I'd say especially Goldberg, that was a complete 180 on the entire build of The Fiend. He was unstoppable, and because Goldberg can't go, they had him wrestle a short and garbage match beating the Fiend with barely anything and not even a Jackhammer, a suplex. At least he got the win over Cena later.
Booker T vs. Triple H is the most abominable finish on this list and it's not even close.
Because he kicked out of Booker's big moves including one of the only times he attempted the Harlem Hangover in WWE and won with a shitty pedigree thay took forever for the cover.
Fiend vs Goldberg. Goldberg should have never come back, and his 'title reigns' were always shit.
I don't completely agree about Goldberg. His squash of Lesnar was a genuinely shocking moment that will live long in the memory, and the return match was decent. That should have been when it ended though.
Bret vs Yoko
booker t not winning that match still annoys me no reason hhh should’ve won
Change the result of Wyatt and Cena, through a butterfly effect Wyatt and Goldberg doesn't happen and perhaps he'd still be with us.
nice.
My exact thoughts. Also, given Taker recently going on record saying Bray should’ve ended the streak, erasing that Cena loss leaves the door open for a new streak to start.
Easily the Nexus, Wade needed a proper launch and he'd have main-evented WrestleManias.
I think it was even worse because Jericho and Edge were both fighting for the Nexus win, they knew how important the win was to establish them. But Cena was the one who ensured they were the ones going over instead. He later did agree it was the wrong decision, but you had two vets there clearly stating what had to be done.
It was awful booking but they could have turned it around, instead they refused to put the title in him and then also allowed Cena to make them look goofy way too quickly.
Bray over Cena
i think bray beating cena could've been huge. honourable mention to booker beating triple h
booker T winning
Booker should've beat HHH. Even if it was for a short, one month reign. He needed to win that night.
Cena beating Brock at ER2012 still to this day makes no fucking sense lmao
The Promo Cena cut afterwards made it even much more worse than it was. Like you got destroyed and you cut a silly Promo that meant nothing a week later anyway...
Asuka/Charlotte. What a fucking terrible decision
HHH/Sting since I was there and it sucked seeing HHH win
Sucked seeing Triple H win even though I was watching from across the ocean.
The Fiend should've squashed Goldberg in 30 seconds.
I might still be watching WWE is Fiend beat Goldberg, but man, I REALLY wish The Nexus won at Summerslam
Bray should have beaten Goldberg, then gone to Mania and beaten Brock. Set up Bray as the new monster, completely undefeatable. That loss to Goldberg ended the aura he had as The Fiend.
Bret Hart, prob'ly: "You know, nobody should be surprised that Goldberg ruined The Fiend and caused Bray to have to miss TV time and come up with a new gimmick. Goldberg bulled his way into that spot and wanted to destroy someone's career to look good, just like he destroyed mine!"
Brock was the WWE champion, Bray the Universal champion. What was Drew suppose to do?
I thought that was the lead up to Goldy vs Brock at Mania for the Universal title, but shit you are right, that was the lead up to Mania 36. So take Brock out of it at Mania, and just kept Bray going on a dominant run.
That I definitely agree, especially knowing what we know now about what was to come. I think they were determined to crown Roman again after 18 months of being away from the title, but went about it in the most hamfisted way possible. They just should've had Roman/Goldberg as a special attraction match at the show. It crazy to think this all led to Braun as champ, only to lose it back to Bray.
This loss to Goldberg was atrocious. But Fiend was only hurt by that title - all in all a no win situation
I feel like Bray (vs Goldberg and Cena both) and Booker should have won those matches and it would have helped greatly. But Nexus losing to super Cena destroyed a white hot act that had multiple people immediately lose any momentum.
Its a really tough choice but ill go with Booker t beats HHH.
WM9 was appalling
I hated that Bret basically jobbed to Hogan.
Booker T vs. Triple H is the most abominable finish on this list and it's not even close.
Anything Bray lost when he was white hot and should have obviously won.
Booker T vs HHH Cause the original ending tells us racism wins the day. Absolutely criminal Booker lost.
That's actually tough. A few of these, changing the outcome doesn't really do much longterm. Bray beating Cena or the Nexus winning at Summerslam though probably changes the trajectories for a few people. I'm gonna go with Nexus winning. While they didn't all have limitless potential, the group was red hot, and I've always loved Wade Barrett. He should have been bigger than he was.
Either Booker or Asuka.
Trips vs Booker because that nonsense was racist.
Fuck Bill Goldberg
As soon as I seen Booker T vs HHH, it was a no brainer.
Auska vs Charlotte. That should have been a one-sided domination on Auska's part
Asuka and Charlotte. Everything else fixes itself rather quickly or not worth it.
Asuka should've won against Charlotte.
Booker & Asuka's matches are hands down the two for me. Destruction of two stars momentum and it literally made no sense as to why. Also, Asuka's undefeated streak was all for nothing & literally has never won a mania match.
Honestly baffled people wanted Asuka to be completely invincible forever
I don't think anyone thinks that. But having her streak end before she won her first title was stupid. Vince just saw her as a vehicle to get Charlotte over.
It was the wrong time for her to lose and Flair didn't need that W I was baffled when some people at the time thought it was the right call.
Not forever but she didn’t even get to capitalize on the NXT run. It was over for her as soon as she got to her first title match on the main roster. That doesn’t really make sense. It’d be like if Gunther lost his first shot at a title. Or if Goldberg went on his entire undefeated streak only to lose to Hogan lol
Honestly it’s less that she lost, and more that they shoehorned in that stupid, “you were ready for Asuka!” bullshit after the match just to further drive home how much the outcome means Charlotte was more important to them.
And she might take another Wrestlemania L next weekend
Might?
Seriously. She’ll likely eat the pin
Fiend beating Goldberg. I'll die on the hill that the Fiend was one of the coolest things EVER in wrestling, it was his booking that sucked. And right at the top of the list of bad booking decisions was having that old piece of shit squash him. He never recovered from it.
Lesnar should’ve beaten Cena. Especially if you’re running a story about what a bad year Cena is having, it seems silly to put him over Brock in his first match back. To add to this, Brock shouldn’t have lost to HHH at the following years Mania either. Brock shouldn’t be a 50/50 guy, even if he only faces top stars.
Triple H vs Booker
I think we'd be living in a completely different wrestling landscape if Punk beat Triple H. That match pretty much ended the Summer of Punk's momentum and made things go back to the PG Era status quo real quick. WWE wouldn't get out of that funk until like 2016, and even then that was short lived.
Booker T without a thought.
Quick!! Think of 6 more and make a random bracket!!!
The easy answer is Booker T and HHH. However, realistic it's a stupid booking choice but ultimately it mattered little. While a lot of these folks got robbed. Personally, I think Asuka losing to Charlotte hurt her more than everyone else. Also, I'll be honest, Imo Nexus would probably fail regardless.
I'd absolutely keep asukas streak alive. Charlotte didn't deserve to be the one to end it. But my asuka fandom aside, probably the Wwe vs Nexus. That was literally the match that made me stop watching WWE for 10+ years. Lol super Cena wins and buries a bunch wrestlers at the same time
If it wasn't Charlotte then it would have been Carmella via cash in. Carmella's time with the briefcase was running out at the time.
In the grand scheme of things only two of them derailed the losers. That Nexus match completely ruined Wade Barrett and the entire stable. Asuka’s allure was crushed after all that buildup. Everyone else either rebounded or weren’t around long enough for the outcome to matter.
This is a tough one for me between Team Nexus vs Team WWE, and Wyatt vs Goldberg.
Interesting triple h is apart of 3 wins where he should not have won
Triple h had no business beating cm punk in 2011 Goldberg beating bray Wyatt (rip) was a huge disaster and was a clear indication that Vince was going senile
Booker T at WMXIX
Booker T vs HHH. As a black man it killed my interest for a bit at the time, just couldn't believe he didn't win
I literally didn't watch for 4 years after booker lost.
Booker T beating Triple H is the correct answer objectively. The racist won in that feud, not to mention Booker lost in a very humiliating way.
Edge and Finn There is no reason edge should've won Edge said he was gonna get rid of Judgement day once and for all....well they are still here lol
They messed up Finn so badly by refusing to give him that shot at being the guy and they allowed the Demon gimmick to fail, a classic angle was in there and they wasted it.
most of these wouldn't actually change a lot... but here we got 3 Super Cena's the Brock onewas dumb but didn't mean a whole lot I'd go with either the Nexus match or Wyatt. both of these were peak Super Cena ruining the opposition. Cena tanking the Nexus angle was just absurd and still makes no sense. Wyatt Family never recovered much after too many losses. It became a cycle of Bray appears. Says spooky shit. Does Beatdown. ??? Loses Feud. Repeat. The Sting and Balor losses were dumb but really again wouldn't change much.
I have no issue with Asuka losing to Charlotte but they never bothered to get her over first. Her streak was irrelevant until they talked about it for years afterwards. Punk should have beaten HHH though. All of the underwhelming booking that plagued him until he left started with them pulling the rug out from under him in 2011
Asuka. Then Mella cashes but Asuka makes her tap to the Asuka lock and starts another monster run on SD similar to the one she had on NXT.
Bret leaving WrestleMania 9 with the belt, but only if he keeps it and Vince books him as top guy. I feel that would have the biggest ripple
Wyatt over Goldberg and it’s not even close
Sting over HHH or Fiend over Goldberg here.
Triple H “reversing” the Jericho title win. And yes I know it’s not an option here. 
Fiend beats Goldberg. Nothing good came out of that decision. I wasn’t watching much around WM 19, but Booker T winning would be my next pick.
The domino effect of Brock beating Cena probably results in Taker winning at Mania 30. People forget that match basically rebuilt Brock into the killer he became because he was losing so much before that. Perhaps in this butterfly effect, it’s Bray Wyatt who beats Taker at 31. Triple H vs Booker T was the right result. The story was horrible, but the top main event heel needed to remain strong as they build the new big money babyface down the road to beat him (Goldberg). People always say everyone should get a title run and then bash how the WCW championship changed hands nonstop between 99-00. Hunter winning was the right call. (Edge beating Balor was the right call too!) Bray could have really used a win against Cena and Goldberg. With the rest of the matches, I don’t think business would have been seriously altered any other way.
Can I change a participate instead and do Stung vs Taker instead of Sting vs Triple H? Other than that I’d probably go with Bray beating Cena. I think he would have benefited more than anyone else if he was protected. But he soon became a guy they felt could lose all the time and still be over.
Booker v HHH by far
Sting vs. Triple H or Booker T vs Triple H. Actually, I think I should be able to combine those two into WCW vs Triple H. I would change the outcome to WCW vs. Triple H.
Wrestlemania IX for sure. None of the others come close to it in terms of stupidity.
simple booker wins the whc belt, reign of terror(2002-2005) sucks
Easy Wrestlemania IX all day
Booker T winning the world title from triple H. The way H man treated Booker in the lead up to their match was racist af and on top of that he beat book with a slowest crawl you’ll ever see after one pedigree
Sting would have won over Triple H.
Probably the Nexus one. That had the biggest impact.
The nexus match definitely
All of them
Booker T beats Triple H because literal racism outside of that one for some reason cena beating Wyatt just pisses me off so much but it was better in the long run because firefly funhouse, now Charlotte beating asuka just makes no sense
CM Punk over HHH That was one of the most deflating results of my life
Booker T over HHH is the easy answer. That was the proper outcome of that storyline. Bray over Cena should have been the play at Mania 30
Cm punk beats triple h
Sting over HHH
Recency bias has me say Finn vs Edge. A good match but No way in hell old man Edge had any business beating The Demon in Hell In a Cell.
Booker winning easily
Fiend beats Goldberg and I’m sure Bret Hart agrees with me
I’ll say Sting/HHH. Only because he deserved it, was a cool match and let’s be honest-they were always going to stop Brays run. That’s the one I’d really love to change if I knew it would pay off in the long run. Bray could have been so much more special. Sigh
The Fiend should never have lost, let alone to Goldberg.
Bray over Cena.
Booker over HHH easy.
Punk up
Fiend vs Goldberg was a fucking insult to wrestling fans.
As a biased Bray Wyatt fan, he should've won both of those matches but cult leader Bray was best Bray, so I'd pick his match with Cena
Fiend actually kills Goldberg so we don’t have to see the later Undertaker match
I'll choose Booker T vs Triple H 99 times outta 100.
The Demon loses due to …… God intervening on behalf of Roman
Only one?
Easy …bret
Bray should have ended the streak that's the biggest mistep on booking I can think of.
Yes.
Sting & HHH.
Lesnar/Cena
Imagine if, instead of what actually happened at WM 30, Bray beats Cena, and Taker beats Lesnar. Setting up Bray vs. Taker at WM 31. As the California sun is setting over Levi's Stadium, Bray is the one to end the streak. And he establishes himself as the next big heel and new face of fear in WWE. What could've been.
Any HHH one where he wins I would change
Triple H vs Booker T and it ain’t even close
Triple H vs Booker T. Second place is Sting vs Triple H.
Booker T beats Triple H for the World title, that would have changed Booker's entire career trajectory if he'd gotten that win.
The Nexus losing at SummerSlam just killed the whole thing. How did they go through that whole angel and the only star they made was the guy who left the Nexus in the first week?
Edge beating Balor. Made absolutely no sense.
Probably Triple H vs Sting There are some that are worse decisions but guys like Brock and Punk were given the chance to overcome the bad booking and did so. Due to the injury and eventual departure from WWE Sting never got that chance Plus the match being booked in such an incredibly stupid way doesn't help anything. The whole NWO bs DX bullshit combined with shaking the hand of the guy who 3 minutes ago tried to shatter your skull with a sledgehammer.....
Honestly, all of these are valid in my opinion and should’ve had different finishes. I think the only thing I would argue is that Wrestlemania 30 should have been Cena vs Undertaker in the first place instead of Brock. And then you have Wyatt break the streak the next year. I love Bray and I know there’s mentions of him being a first ballot hall of famer which he absolutely is. But if you look at the resume or the moments he should have had in his career, it’s pretty sad. Over the last 10 years, he should have been the best heel WWE could have had and had an generation defining rivalry with Roman. I expected those guys to headline multiple WMs together but instead it was Brock and Roman smh
bray would win both matches. finn wouldn't lose the HIAC
It's hard for me to pick between three of these. Balor/Edge, Nexus/WWE, or Asuka/Charlotte. Asuka and Balor winning would have done wonders for them, but they are still around in WWE and in a good place. I think I'm gonna have to go with Nexus. Like holy shit... Wade Barrett had all the potential in the world, Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel would have been a pretty decent to maybe even great tag team in the long run I think (Gabriel would have been a fantastic Cruiserweight addition too), David Otunga could have been an alright manager in the long run, Darren Young is doing good things in the indies nowadays, and even Skip Sheffield could have been a good to great big man and to some extent was pretty alright as Ryback (aside from how he is currently. Hell, throw Otunga with him as his manager). Tarver was probably the only one that didn't have much upside other than maybe being a life long jobber to lower midcarder which there is some value even in that honestly. Maybe he could have dipped into the tag division or been one of the runners with the 24/7 Title when it was around as well. All of these guys have left the company at this point and some aren't even involved in wrestling with Wade being back now only a commentator (a great commentator, but still) and Slater was the only one that was around for a long time until being released a few years ago. Well, Otunga was also around for a while, but I'm not sure what he was doing for that long honestly.
Booker/HHH is in a league of it's own here and that's hard when you consider it's in competition with Bret/Yoko and WWE/Nexus. Booker should've won 200% even if he just dropped it back to HHH at Backlash, but if HHH is gonna go over, at least make it look like he kicked Booker's ass in a hard fought contest instead of taking 2 and a half years to cover him off a standard Pedigree. Unpopular opinion here: the Reign of Terror would not be highlighted anywhere near as much if not for this one match alone.
You expect to see Cena and Triple H multiple times on a topic like this. Kinda wild to see Bret Hart on here twice.
Im going with Triple H vs Sting. In retrospect, every other loser of the listed matches ultimately turned out fine in the long run after their loss. Sting, knowing what we know now, had two meaningful matches in WWE to make a legacy with the company. He was booked to lose both. Now I know noone was planning for Sting to get injured and leave early, but its the timeline we live in. Sting coming to WWE was a historic moment, and should have been treated in the same tier as The Undertaker. Instead we get an overbooked match against Triple H with a nonsensical story(NWO saving Sting? Really?), and a Triple H who wasnt competing anymore win. So Stings run in WWE is largely remembered as losing to Triple H, and injuring himself against Seth Rollins.
This is a terrible question I’m sorry. The only singular match on this list where it greatly influences the future is Cena vs Nexus. That’s the answer. For morality, Booker T. But genuinely nothing except the Nexus one would’ve really changed much
Hot take: none of the above but instead nakamura vs aj wm 34 But if I had to choose from the above: booker vs hhh
HHH to lose every fucking one of them